Thomas Jefferson

I was the third president of the United States – Thomas Jefferson. I was born in 1743 to a wealthy family. My father was a successful planter, and my mother was a member of one of the most distinguished families in Virginia. Something you might not know about me was that I loved to eat cheese. I was once given a 1235 pound hunk of cheese. Since then, people kept calling me “the big cheese”. After studying at the College of William and Mary, I became a lawyer. Although I was shy and reserved, I was elected to Virginia’s House of Burgesses in 1768. I had only a few friends and my best friend was John Adams. Nevertheless, we became adversaries because we had different political views.

I opposed Britain’s authority over the American colonies. Our people should rule our country. Before the American Revolution, Britain taxed colonists, who had no representation in parliament. We thought that the British were not powerful enough to rule the country and we wanted to get rid of taxes. Britain taxed colonists through different events for example the Stamp Act and the Sugar Act. Our people started to get resentful and tired of being controlled by the British. Also, through the taxation, colonists thought that Britain had violated their natural rights as British citizens. Because they had no representation in Parliament, colonists reasoned that taxation could only come from the colonial legislatures. Since then, I encouraged our people to gain back the rights to govern our colonies. In 1774, I wrote A Summary View of the Rights of British America. I insisted on the autonomy of colonial legislative power and encouraged the idea to have an independent nation of United States. In the same year, I was one of the delegates of the First Continental Congress. Congress aimed to boycott British goods. Later, in 1775, the Second Continental Congress was held again and it was to organize the colonial war effort in rebellion against England. The Second Continental Congress decided many important issues. It decided to completely break away from England. Also, the Congress decided to organize a better military and to form the American Continental Army. At that time, almost everyone wanted to be independent. In 1776, I was appointed to a five-man committee to draft a formal declaration of independence from England. I was glad because I perceived that the independence of our country was approaching.

I was sure of John Locke’s theory, that all men had certain inalienable rights. I believed life, liberty and property are the natural rights of people. “An equal application of law to every condition of man is fundamental.” Even with or without government, people were born with natural rights that no one could take away from them. I also said that, “Nothing... is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man." As a result, if a government failed to respect citizens’ natural rights, they have the right to overthrow it. I believe that people hold the power in their hands. Property rights are also one of the human rights and freedom of citizens. Without the property rights, other rights meant little to citizens. I had strong defense of States’ rights, as I was from the Democratic-Republican Party. I believe every state should have its own rights because a country was too big to deal with all its affairs. A state with more people should have more power. I strongly support separation of church and state. It was because both the government and religion would be more concentrated on their power and would not influence each other.

After I died, people commended me for making lots of changes through my ideas. I was pleased that I could make changes for my people during my term of office. This was my biggest goal and strongest belief in my life. People also exalted me not only because I impacted the government of United States, but also influenced around the world. Since the Declaration of Independence, more and more people believed that all men should have life, liberty and property. Also, we should fight for our rights and what we wanted in the society. People in both Europe and United States still believed in my theory today. They praised me as one of the most prominent of the founding father. To commemorate me, Gutzon Borglum carved my face at the Mount Rushmore. I really appreciated that. Another funny, but meaningful thing to me, is that I died on the July 4th, 1826. It was the 50th Anniversary of signing the Declaration of Independence. It was also the day my old best friend, John Adams died. Wasn’t it ridiculous?